Since 2008 the networking project Musik 21 Niedersachsen has been holding a festival that explores cultural, urban and rural conditions in the state of Lower Saxony and has developed an artistic program from its conclusions. The motto at Musik 21 Festival 2017 in Hannover, that is being supported by the EvS Music Foundation, is Ums Wort (About the Word). Words alone are not enough for understanding. They are accompanied by gestures, tonal colors, speed. This title already suggests that, like in New Music where background noise is increasingly important, here it is about the many (background) notions of words. Moreover, we know that for every language that dies out a (world) view disappears forever.
For the festival it will be established how many languages are spoken in Hannover to then present the beauty of these languages with the project »Listen: Voices«: many of the foreign language speakers living in Hannover will be invited to a meal in the pavilion. Suspended above every table will be microphones so that a composer can compose constantly changing linguistic worlds for the audience in real time.
Furthermore, 20 composition commissions for fanfares, calls and warnings turned into sound will be issued. Now there are many reasons to write a fanfare – for instance a fanfare for the first sip of coffee in the morning, for opening the front door or for freshly cleaned shoes. These fanfares will be performed by Ensemble Schwerpunkt over the entire duration of the festival at surprising places and at surprising moments.